Celebrity Nun Called As Witness for the Defense of Boston Muslim Terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Helen Prejean: the only Catholic nun the NYT finds credible.

We at Fidelity and Action do enjoy seeing Sister Helen once again in the national spotlight. Notice how the terrorist is no longer portrayed as a terrorist in the media, below. No, he’s either a former college student or the Boston bomber.

1. “He was found guilty of all 30 charges, many of which carried the death penalty.”

2. “Defense attorney Judy Clarke, who has a track record of successfully defending killers against the death penalty, announced Sister Helen as one of two ‘potential’ witnesses on Wednesday while the jury was not in the courtroom.”
3. “The movie Dead Man Walking brought Sister Helen to national prominence. It charts her support for Elmo Patrick Sonnier, a convicted rapist and murderer who attempted to overturn the death penalty. ”

1. “The nun provided to jurors the first evidence of Mr. Tsarnaev feeling regret since he was captured and charged with killing three people and wounding 264 others at the 2013 marathon, as well as killing an M.I.T. police officer three days later.

2. Wearing street clothes, a silver cross dangling from her neck, Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun and prominent opponent of the death penalty, testified on Monday that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the convicted Boston Marathon bomber, had expressed sympathy for his victims.

3. Asked how his voice sounded as he spoke, Sister Prejean, 76, said: “It had pain in it, actually, when he said what he did about ‘nobody deserves that.’ I had every reason to think he was taking it in and he was genuinely sorry for what he did.”

4. “Their cross-examination was to point out what was obvious: She’s against the death penalty, and she’d be up there arguing against it even if it were Adolf Hitler,” said David Hoose, a defense lawyer in Northampton, Mass., who has argued death penalty cases. Still, Mr. Hoose said, Sister Prejean was a valuable witness because she carries moral authority and because if Mr. Tsarnaev felt any regret, she could convey sincerity about it better than he could.

1. “Her testimony was very significant. Remember, Tsarnaev has been sitting basically stone-faced through just about this entire trial, leaving jurors with absolutely no clue what’s going on in his head. So this witness was the first to shed a little light.”

2. “She says she met with Tsarnaev five times and that when they spoke about his crimes and his victims, he said, quote, “no one deserves to suffer like they did.” Sister Helen says that Tsarnaev lowered eyes, his voice sounded pained. She says she could see the emotion in his face, and she says she came away believing that he’s, quote, “genuinely sorry for what he did.” I should say that her testimony was clearly limited legally. There was a lot she couldn’t say, but she did manage to signal to jurors that there might be – might be – some remorse.